Sunday, October 31, 2010

It appears the ALP has unorthodox ways of providing career guidance for its senior politicians.

Mind you, from the comments threads on one or two blogs, I'd be not too surprised if a sanctimonious youngish blond headed fellow with a large ego and married to a horse was trying to get his leg over.

The most amusing aspect of this whole affair is that the Libs are standing on the sidelines, watching the show. They didn't have to do a thing.

Williams, whose term as Mayor expires today as the new Auckland Council comes into being tomorrow, was allegedly picked up for drinking and driving this past Friday.

Whaleoil has consistently made the point that Williams was a bully, self-indulgent, a drunk and more. He slapped the title of "Clown of Campbell's Bay" on Williams and campaigned both online and on the streets to get rid of Williams.

The DIC charge, if it indeed proves true, is a fitting epitaph for a failed political career of anger, abuse and alcohol allegations.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Shortly after Labour left office, the new National govt speaker, Lockwood Smith, apparently became a convert to "transparency" in MPs spending and opened it up to scrutiny. Naturally, the ex-govt's MPs had done most of the spending over the last few years, and the media spent months enthusiastically dipping Labour MPs in shit, much to the pleasure of Lockwood Smith's party.

Now that the media feeding frenzy has died down and it's only Dr Smith's party that stands to get dipped in shit for extravagant spending over the next few years, he suddenly finds "transparency" has become a less desirable property, and MPs' privacy has become very, very important:

Yesterday he reversed that decision because he said he was "troubled" by a "lack of integrity" in what was being made public.

Oh, there's a "lack of integrity" here alright, a big, fat lack of integrity. There's also a weasel sitting in the Speaker's chair.

UPDATE: Graeme Edgeler pointed out on another thread that the Labour ex-Ministers' spending wasn't opened up by Smith's transparency push, and such spending remains transparent. It was ACT MPs who got hammered for private travel spending.

Friday, October 29, 2010

It seems the desperate print media are intent on drumming up some controversy where none exists. None of the chest thumping pen pushers seem to realise there was no problem until a foreign union pushed its way into NZ and blackmailed Peter Jackson without realising that it was in fact needling the powerful studios themselves. Of course the studios treated the union like the cockroach it is and crushed it under its heel. Well done.

None of these three pieces even mentions the despicable role of the NZ unions in this disaster.

Not one of these armchair pontificators has enough brains to realise that even double what has been paid thus far would have been a bargain. A small price to pay for some $2 billion dollars worth of economic activity from two films- PLUS the literally billions of dollars worth of activity derived from the future movies which we would have lost if Mr Key and Co had not intervened.

Nobody from Dead Tree Media bothered to calculate how much GST and PAYE revenue the government would have lost if the Hobbit had gone offshore. No, they just bloviate their verbal excrement all over my breakfast table.

Now, dear readers, just ask yourselves who stood to benefit most from a major blow to this country's fragile economic recovery just twelve months out from an election? Then ask yourself which political party is inextricably linked to the perpetrators of this failed piece of economic sabotage?

Ask yourself that question again when you go to vote in Mana and at next year's general election.

I returned home very late last night to the news of the death of Lieutenant Colonel John Masters, ONZM, MC, JP. I cried and cried some more.

One of the greatest honours ever paid me was to have him describe me in his book 'A Bridge Over' as his friend. He was much more than that. For many of us he was a living legend; a humble man who lived to serve and in doing so inspired so many. There was no better choice when last year he was the inaugural recipient of the 'ANZAC of the Year Award'.

I first met John when I was a young soldier in Bob Gurr's Battalion back in 1963. He was the 2ic of the Company I was posted to. A short time later I went to Australia for officer training and although our Army is very small our paths didn't really cross until after we had both left the service when he and I teamed up to fight Government over the Agent Orange issue.

That was when I really got to know John. He was masterful in knowing just how far to push and when it was time to pull back a tad. When he and I designed what became known as 'The Open Letter' it was through his wise counsel that we crafted a document that lived to underpin the Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between Government, the Royal New Zealand Returned & Services Association and the Ex-Vietnam Services Association.

Early this year I was involved in the filming of the TV documentary 'A Bridge Over' which covered the life and times of John Masters. As part of that we flew the Ghurka soldier whose life he saved in Borneo out from Nepal for a hugely emotional reunion. But all through the filming John wanted to talk, not about himself but of the soldiers he was privileged to command. That was/is the measure of the man.

To Alisoun and the children my thoughts and prayers. I will try to make it to Christchurch for the funeral but my Massey job may prevent that. But whatever, I will be there in spirit and will share a few more tears for a great friend and greater New Zealander.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Adolf watched the debate on the 'Save the NZ Film Industry" bill this afternoon.

I was reminded of a rep who once worked for me in Southland. He was a retired cocky who thought that in a sales interview you must never disagree with a prospect. So, when he was presented with an objection to his proposition, he would preface his reply with these wonderful words:-

"Yes but no blah blah blah."

Needless to say, he was ineffective and was fired.

So too will be the Dikshits of Labour and the Greens who prefaced their remarks with the words "We are glad the Hobbitt will be filmed in New Zealand but we think the National Party and Peter Jackson and everyone else was wrong."

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Kalamity Kelly has set the union movement back decades.Getting involved was her first mistake and I cannot possibly imagine how they are going to spin the fix.Not only did they not get what they wanted but they opened the door for a wildly popular prime Minister to make employment law less worker friendly for the very people who were agitating in the first place.Lying, getting caught in the lie and then insulting a national living treasure probably didn't help either.One positive will come out of this though. Robyn Malcolm may stick to acting and leave the childlike political campaigning to others.

Yes, I know you're not supposed to speak ill of the soon to be dead and if I'm wrong then I will apologize but in the meantime, isn't this just a further manifestation of an arrogant attitude which treats politics as some kind or sport? An activity for the personal gratification of the participants?

After just five minutes Adolf can't help notice The Herald's new strategy to save its circulation.

Pander to wankers.

First, it gives headlines to some petrol head wanker called 'Chudleigh' (I say, Chudleigh old chap) who was nabbed doing 75 k in a 50k zone. He's whinging about the cop not letting him know he was there, for God's sake. (Dumb bloody editor doesn't even know 'power pole' is two words.)

ChudleighHaggett, of Tauranga, was driving to Taupo for the long weekend with his family when he was stopped by the officer, who appeared on the street from behind a powerpole, he said.

The family were travelling to a motor racing event and were going through the small town of Reporoa - just south of Rotorua - at around 9am on Saturday.

Mr Haggett said he had gone through a 50km/h sign and immediately adjusted his speed as he approached a group of shops.

Why don't you face facts, Herald? The prick was caught speeding through a small country town.

Second we have the childish headline "Goff Clinches Gillard Talks Before Key" as though this is some major victory.

Yesterday Mr Key said he was not concerned about Mr Goff's visit. But he indicated Mr Goff broke with protocol by keeping it under wraps until the last minute.

He said that when he was Leader of the Opposition he had always advised the Prime Minister in advance in writing when he was meeting other leaders. Mr Goff had notified him only on Sunday, by phone.

This is the guy who wants New Zealanders to trust him with the country's economic levers yet he can't be trusted even to display normal courtesy and good manners. Can you imagine the screeching from the Bilious Bitch if Dr Brash had done such a thing?

Anyway, what the hell did they talk about? Will she be giving Goff lessons in wasting vast amounts of taxpayer's money on shonky building contracts and death inducing insulation schemes? Will Goff be extolling the virtues of being the longest serving 'political unknown' in the nation's history?

When Mr Key sees her in a few days time, no doubt he will let her know in clear language what New Zealanders think of invading Australian unionists.

I wonder how The Herald will spin that?

And then there is the gratuitous and false story about FonterraCEO's pay package. The slack arsed propagandists at The herald would have you think Mr Ferrier will be paid $5.1 million but what they don't tell you is that will ONLY happen if he meets ALL his financial and operational targets for the year. Note the carefully misleading wording 'in a range'.

The dairy farmer co-operative's 2010 annual report yesterday showed Ferrier's pay for the year ended July 31 was in a range with an upper limit of $5.11 million, compared to $3.63 million the previous year.

One thing you can rely on these days. The herald will deliver populist, unbalanced, selective coverage. Guaranteed

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

It's looking very much as though Mr Key is setting up the CTU and Labour for a very big fall.

And the best the Labour Party can do is to have Goff run off at the mouth in Australia about how great they wert to waste billions on insulating houses (killing only four people in the process) and paying five times the going rate for school halls.

My bet is the price that will be paid for the return of The Hobbit to New Zealand will be the complete and total emasculation of Labour's 'military wing' the trade unions. Look for legislation preventing union involvement in 'strategic' industries. When Mallard and Co start squealing, all John Key has to do is remind them how they imperiously declared Auckland Airport to be a strategic asset when a benign Canadian pension fund wanted to buy in.

I'm laying in large stocks of pop corn and cognac for the ensuing jousts of the next few days.

Just watch the currency trader fuck over the dim witted loons of the left.

Adolf has noticed for some years a disproportionate number of these machines involved in fatalities but not until today did he know the actual numbers. This machine is a greater danger to civil aviation than a few jibberingmuslims.

A widow wants pilots to stay away from a helicopter involved in 30 crashes in six years in which nine people have died, including a double fatality this month.

You need to know what they look like pre-crash, so as to avoid ever boarding. The giveaway is the tall spiky rotor support.

The fools at The Herald would save many more lives by calling for the immediate and permanent grounding of the whole Robinson fleet than they will buggering around with booze laws.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Yep, Adolf finally is going through twenty eight years of junk and retained files in preparation for moving house. I reckon I've burnt more paper than the Japs did on the morning of December 7th, 1941. Most of it to do with the life insurance industry and the Presbyterian Church. It's quite a strange feeling to put part of one's history to the torch.

There are two worthwhile observations.

It is impossible to find even one policy holder who actually derived some benefit from the many mergers and take overs within the life industry during the 90s. Many executives were enriched but not so policy holders.

I'm privileged to have spent some twenty five years involved in the regional administration of the Presbyterian Church and I look back with pleasure that amongst all the ratbag ministers with whom I have dealt, there was no hint of child abuse.

In case you might think Adolf occupied some position of extreme power and influence, such was not the case. I was and remain one of many who collectively do our best to keep every one on the straight and narrow.

"But whatgot me genuinely excited this week was that union workers turned out in their thousands in mass rallies around the country to protest the National-Act government's anti-worker laws. They were the biggest in 20 years."

Poor old Matt really does struggle with reality. In a world where a paid job is a privilege not a right, he bravely battles on under the delusion that Unions will be the saviour of the world.

Like sailing ships, Unions have their place in history, but the world has moved on.They are now nothing more than an obsolete insult to workers' intelligence.After a century of the best standard of living the world has ever seen, do people still really need the "helping hand" of a bunch of fee extorting, parasitic shit stirrers.

Jobs in Western countries are becoming scarcer by the day. That is a sad but inevitable fact of life.If teachers, actors and any other worker wants to stir up trouble, then when it all turns to custard I hope they realise that they have been well and truly stitched up by the likes of McCarten, Kelly, Gainsford and Malcolm.

The Left had 9 easy years to set us on a path of economic prosperity.But what did they deliver?Debt, job destruction, recession and welfare dependency.

Malcolm has been one of the main identities associated with attempts to extract greater union concessions from Warner Bros and Sir Peter Jackson, and therefore, one of the main identities for the backlash that has followed the panic over whether NZ will lose the filming.

There are two thoughts I've had on this.

Firstly, it serves Robyn Malcolm and Jennifer Ward-Lealand right. If they want to wade into politics, using their celebrity status to advocate on issues like climate change and other left-wing issues du jour, then they need to face the consequences of their advocacy which is a political reaction. They can't, nor should they expect that life would be like a movie script with a pre-determined happy and simplistic ending where they, the good guys (them and the Green Party) win, and the bad guys (centre-right authority and faceless corporations) lose.

If they really care about politics, they should stop the acting lark and become politicians. Malcolm in particular has been exercising her freedom of speech for some time in the political arena, and as we know, this freedom goes both ways, with listeners now reacting against her comments in a determinedly hostile way.

But this brings me to my second thought on the matter. I'm tempering my schadenfreude because it's all too easy to believe that Malcolm and Ward-Lealand are the nice pliant saps that the unions and political left wheel out for celebrity campaigns. It may well be that these and other celebrities now realise they are marketing pawns in the wider political and economic games of our nation. It's all very easy to mock Gerry Brownlee over "sexy coal", but intervening on behalf of a union has yielded disastrously bad results.

The unions are not political fools. They're happy to spread the blame around if the Hobbit goes offshore. They NEED to spread the blame around, and who better than the telegenic fools they roped in for their issue du jour. With the possibility of two thousand New Zealanders being deprived of work, it's a lot easier to blame "that loudmouth b*tch from West Auckland" than the odious Mr Whipp and Ms Kelly.

A warning to all celebrities - freedom of speech is its own b*tch. Feel free to get involved in any campaign you like, but don't be surprised if you get treated like a politician when you act political.

The Deerstalkers' Association president Alec McIver said the hunter who shot Ms Ives was "spotlighting" and shooting on public land.

The "terrible accident" tarnished the reputation of all hunters.

Oh yeah, an "accident." Could happen to anyone, right? I remember years back there was a petrolhead loser racing at night in Christchurch, mowed down a woman on a pedestrian crossing, then bleated to the media how he didn't think he should be charged with manslaughter because it was "just an accident." I agreed with him to the extent that it would have been nice if he didn't have to be charged with manslaughter - a degree of murder charge would have been way more appropriate. This is another case like that one - if you're doing something really obviously stupid and dangerous that's quite likely to kill someone, and you kill someone, let's not use the wildly inappropriate word "accident" for it.

I lived on the West Coast when I was younger, and got well acquainted with the kind of people who have these "terrible accidents" with guns. They are, universally, people who love guns, act like morons when they've got hold of one, end up killing someone, and if the someone isn't themselves they try and call it an "accident." Just as though everybody has play fights with a loaded gun, climbs fences with one, fires off into the distance on flat, open ground for entertainment (one of our near-neighbours in Harihari was shot dead by someone firing at random on a farm a good kilometer away), or just bangs away at anything that moves because that's what they call "hunting." Call it what it is, a form of murder through criminal negligence.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Having singlehandedly sabotaged some $2 billion dollars worth of the nation's export income they now beseech the populace to cease pointing fingers.

In a statement, the union says everyone wants the same thing, to have The Hobbit made in New Zealand, and it's time to put emotion aside and move forward.

An ANZ economist has estimated the cost of losing The Hobbit at $2 billion.

Maybe they could consider taking positive and corrective action.

They might prevail upon Graceless Kelly at the CTU to issue Sir Peter Jackson with a written indemnity against all industrial action in the film industry for a period of five years. That's about what it will take to get the business back where it belongs - not some damn fool penny ante increase in tax write offs.

Warners will simply calculate the value of an extra $60 million tax benefit against the cost of potential union damage at close to or more than $600 million. They will go where they can get stability even if it costs a bit more.

When you think about it, that's the same thought process that makes a typical Kiwi home buyer take a three year fixed mortgage rate of 6% when he could have had a floating rate of 5%. He is paying a premium for stability and certainty.

But that simplicity is beyond the socialists dreamers of Unionland and Greenland who are united in their envy and hatred of commercial success.

In one respect, Adolf actually hopes the movie is taken away from NZ. Such a calamity might give NZers the backbone to support government moves to strip the unions and their craven Labour Party political wing of their unbridled power to damage the nation.

New Zealand Cricket chairman Chris Moller told reporters on Friday the high-level committee will be set up to examine all aspects of cricket, from grassroots to international level.....

......There will be no changes in the Black Caps' management structure for the India tour.

But don't worry chaps, we are not making any changes. It's business as usual as we go on our merry losing ways and if we find ODIs are too difficult for our chaps we'll set up a world cup for beach cricket and hold the event in Tonga.

The Slack Caps would have been better served if all the fools who consistently threw away their wickets against the Bangers were dropped from the team and a whole new bunch of youngsters with the RIGHT ATTITUDE toured India.

Friday, October 22, 2010

The revelation that Labour MPs Chauvel and Mahuta are giving advice to the families of Mongrel Mob members in their attempt to stave off eviction from their State Houses and that advice has cost YOU and ME as taxpayers in excess of $500k in legal bills deserves comment.

No wonder that Phil Goff was running a mile last night to distance himself from the story ... no backing ... you need to talk to them.

And so they did. Chauvel "I was only doing it at the behest of two of my colleague MPs". Mahuta "mumble, mumble, mumble" ... let me out of here please.

Best advice. When you're caught with your fingers in the Cookie jar ... fess up. What they should have said was ....

'Labour has a history of helping the underprivileged. Look at Philip Field. These people have the same rights as all others faced with this situation. So what if their neighbours feel threatened by them ... threatened doesn't equal actual danger in our books and what's a bit of damage and mayhem between friends. This is a prime example of a National Party putting the boot into people they know will never support them. Well, we in Labour do.'

Thursday, October 21, 2010

These are the people who allegedly want to invest over $200 million in dairy farms and dairy product production facilities in this country.

You think I'm xenophobic? You bethcha I am when it comes to the pricks who think it's OK to let a few babies die rather than jeopardize their glitzy games opening; the pricks who steal other people's intellectual property without a second thought; these pricks who blame 'whitey' when they fuck up their own businesses; these pricks who just simply cannot be trusted EVER to do the right thing.

By all means trade with them, sell them foodstuffs and buy their cheap crap but don't ever let the smiling, mendacious, sly, duplicitous little bastards within a thousand miles of the NZ dairy industry or any other national asset whose value and brand can be destroyed just as quickly as our film industry has been destroyed by Robyn Malcolm and Graceless Kelly.

How much lost GDP does that represent? A billion each year? For maybe three years or so, just when the recovery desperately needs a boost.

How many lost jobs does that represent? Two or three thousand? Counting all the down steam jobs.

Where are the howls of outrage from the antique media? From the gutless leader of the opposition? So far, not a whisper. All they seem interested in is sand castles and fostering the Maori language.

This looks very much to Adolf like economic sabotage, carefully orchestrated by the trade unions' leader Andrew Little who is carefully positioning himself for a political career and desperately needs to stifle any chance of an economic recovery.

The stooges of the Waitangi Tribunal have released a report in which they lambaste the Crown for what they see as the imminent demise of the Maori language.

Adolf wonders what the hell they think the Gummint should do about a problem which is brought about by nothing less than neglect on the part of Maori themselves. If they want to save their language then let them do something about it themselves.

Adolf would like to hear from the Waitangi Tribunal a recitation of all the measures which have been taken by such wealthy outfits as Ngai Tahu, Taunui, Te Arawa, Ngati Porou, Nga Puhi, Muri Whenua, Tuwharetoa and others such as Sealord Ltd to rectify what is their problem, not the gummint's problem.

Of one thing New Zealanders can be sure. If you gave the whole bloody country back to the Maoris, lock stock and barrel, they'd still have these fools issuing their reports demanding someone else step up to the plate with yet more money for the Bros.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The decision by the Australian Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, to bring a range of charges, including manslaughter, against three members of 1 Commando Regiment for their part in a night action in Afghanistan when the Taliban Leader they were hunting down surrounded himself with civilians who died when grenades were thrown into the building they were occupying, has engendered considerable controversy 'across the ditch'.

There will be those who say that we should respect legal process and yes we should but to my mind the greater question is whether the charges should have been bought in the first place by a uniformed civilian with no understanding of the realities of combat. Charlie Lynn, Member of the NSW Legislative Council, speaks for many in his article on the subject here

Look, war is shitty. Night action particularly so and in a war where the other mob don't wear uniforms there will always be an enhanced chance of civilian causalities.

I think the decision to prosecute was wrong. This was no My Lai massacre. Brigadier McDade would learn much from going to Afghanistan and going out on a night patrol that comes under enemy fire. Then perhaps, and only then, can she make the call she did.

The world has changed but only a fool would believe that Labour has changed it's spots.

There is unease in the land but expecting Labour's failed policies and faces to save the day isjust plain stupid.The problems now facing New Zealand can't be solved by a party that will rely on last century's thinking.

There's been a bit of pontificating all over the internet regarding the rescuing of the Chilean miners as to whether this represents a victory for capitalism, or a symbol of its failure.

Some, like the Wall Street Journal, have argued that the way in which private companies designed the method and technology that saved the 33 miners trapped at the San Juan mine in Chile, is a symbol of how capitalism, and man's ability to innovate, has triumphed over mother nature's cruelty.

Others, like the HuffPo argue that the lax safety standards at the mine were caused by a desire to profit at the expense of the miners, and thus represents a flaw in capitalism.

There may be a grain of truth in the latter, but certainly plenty of truth in the former - that the triumph of man in rescuing their fellow man through science and innovation is a wonder to behold, and that this represents more of the capitalist ethos than socialism. Expect lots of iridium Oakley sunglasses to be sold over the next year!

Ultimately though, this is not an argument about left vs right, or socialism vs capitalism. It's actually about freedom versus despotism.

Chile is (now) a free and transparent society. It has has mostly social-democrat rule over the last two decades, but is currently run by a capitalist centre-right president. It's stable and prosperous. Regardless of the side of the spectrum you sit on, no one would argue against the present Chile as a transparent democracy. 33 miners were trapped, and at great expense and under the full glare of the world's attention, they conceived a plan, sought external help from those with expertise like NASA, and got to work. The Chilean government did this because it was in their interests to save their boys - they would have lost their mandate from the people had they not tried.

I just wonder, would China, North Korea, Libya, Myanmar or any other despotic nation have given two figs for 33 miners trapped in a hole? Would they have simply ignored the chance of a rescue, and move to reopen the mine to full production? It's hard to imagine anything other than a free and transparent society giving it's full endorsement to the rescue of its men in a deep dark hole.

Contrast that with the despotic nations. There are a number of major industrial accidents in China that cause loss of life or huge environmental pollution. One of the worst environmental disasters of all time, Chernobyl, was famously covered up by the former Soviet Union until Swedish nuclear reactor workers 1000km away had their geiger alarms go off, caused by the drifting radiation from the Ukraine. The USSR typified how despotic nations would rather hide their problems than move to save their people.

Chile, as a prosperous and free nation is able to tolerate the criticisms of mining safety that have come and will continue to come. They will improve the safety of their mines, because their people will demand it. But the democratically elected Pinera government will remain the legitimate voice of the Chilean people, because they rescued their men, and in doing so, showcased the very best of their national soul to the world. Freedom has prospered as a result, and ultimately, that's good for capitalism too.

Bloody journos. Picked up the Sunday Star Times this morning, and on the front page there's a lovely free gift: "Key says he's just a man of the people."

In-built Sarcastic Comment Generator instantly kicks into overdrive:

"Yes, in this great country of ours, even a lowly multi-millionaire from the finance industry can rise to become Prime Minister!"

"What an inspiration he must be to other wealthy men considering a career in politics!"

And so on. But then the in-built Reasoning Module catches up:

"Hang on, Key's a professional politician - surely he didn't say anything that stupid."Read the article, and sure enough, he didn't say anything that stupid. The journo or sub-editor is contributing the stupid on his behalf. Funny how they always manage to do that - must have an in-built facility for it...

Both species feature in environmental groups' "fish to avoid" guides - orange roughy is at No. 1 and hoki at No. 5 on Greenpeace's NZ Red Fish list. Influential newspapers The Guardian and The New York Times have cited New Zealand in critical stories and columns about "unsustainable" trawling and the impacts of bottom trawling.

Influential? Both with declining readership as the public wakes up to their abjectly partisan treatment of political and environmental issues.

Adolf cannot remember anywhere hearing these people use the following argument when discussing their now fading cause du jour - global warming, no that's now climate change, no that's now climate disruption.

The ministry (and fishing industry) says the QMS is grounded in science; environmentalists say the science remains as uncertain as picking Lotto numbers.

Like the Lotto numbers used by the climate science scammers, eh chaps?

Adolf watched Cunliffe'samateur theatrics in the house last week as he brandished what purported to be a copy of a proposal for the Gummint to accept a buy out plan for South Canterbury Finance.

The carefully coiffed kook boomed monotonously on about the wonderful deal which Blenglsh had deigned to reject. What a fool was English and what a genius is Cunliffe - ran the line of his argument. Well, Adolf sincerely hopes some journalist has the brains to confront Labour's latest spend and tax expert the hard but obvious question.

"Mr Cunliffe, would you have directed Treasury to accept the deal you were touting last week?"

"SCF have two main pillars to their recapitalisation plan. The first involves intra-group transactions moving Helicopters New Zealand and Scales Corporation into SCF from Southbury Group ... The second pillar involves a transaction with [blanked out] - a finance company currently in moratorium. This transaction would be similar in substance to the transaction involving [blanked out]. In this case it would involved debenture holders in the [blanked out] receiving an equity stake in SCF in lieu of their claim in the moratorium of [blanked out]."

This was a deal which would have made the legendary Blue Sky Mines look like Cortez's ElDorado and Bill English rightly rejected it as too risky. Cunliffe has no better head for business than did Cullen. He would accept a risk of $500 million based on the security of two flat broke incompetent finance companies. I guess that's what you'd expect from an incompetent flat broke Labour Party.

Long may this swivel-necked sideshow clown with a permanently open mouth grace the opposition benches where he can be relied upon to do little real damage apart from exacerbating the Speaker's hearing difficulties.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

My not so occasional jousting with Redbaiter, that clone of the 'Left', got me thinking about the nature of 'extremism'.

Many would contend that on politics there is absolutely no difference between the extreme Right and the extreme Left. That the Kim Jong il's of this world can cohabit quite easily the Hitlers. The mantra of both is 'my way or the highway' and for highway read bullet between the eyes.

And so it is with religious zealots in both Christendom and Islam. Is there any difference at all between say those nutter followers of the schematic Westboro Baptist Church who protest at Military Funerals because the US Military now allows 'Gays' to serve and radical Islam which advocates jihad against non believers with the sweetener of the 77 virgins bit.

There is no difference at all. All are dangerous. But I guess that's the price we pay for living in a free society. Redbaiter would like to put me to the torch. I just feel sorry for him.

And in other news it appears the Democratic Party is commencing the political assassination of its black assed jackass in the White House.

Adolf has been wondering for sometime what it would take for Obama to be tipped out before 2012 but he never dreamed the push would come from his own party. Apparently the normally Democrat friendly ABC news channel's Jake Tapper has been asking all sorts or embarrassing questions about the absence of his 'long form' birth certificate (the only reliable form of birth certificate.)

Perhaps the dopey donks have realised their melon disguised as an aubergine in fact is a lemon and are moving to elevate Miss Hillary into VP position to take over when Obamby falls over his teleprompter in a couple of weeks time.

Clint Heine speculates on a potential split in the Maori Party whereby the black motherfucker from Up North rushes back to Labour's arms with a large chunk of the MP vote, thereby producing a surprise victory for the ratbags of the left, presumably in 2011.

I think he is wrong. First, the latest polls don't bear out his theory and second, he underestimates the support for Hone Harawira.

Have a look at Roy Morgan's results from yesterday's release.

The latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows support for John Key’s National-led Government has weakened slightly to 52.5% (down 0.5%), comprising National Party 49.5% (up 1%), Maori Party 2.5% (up 1%), ACT NZ 0.5% (down 1.5%) and United Future 0% (down 1%).

It seems a large number of professional grifters have figured out how to make a buck out of the Chilean miners in the process of being rescued. The Guardian reports how various teams of con artists are trying to take credit for the rescue - apparently, the miners are alive not thanks to their quick action in getting to the shelter, their will to live, and the engineering skills of their rescuers, but thanks to the special woo-woo of the grifters.

My favourite spiel:

"God has spoken to me clearly and guided my hand each step of the rescue," said Carlos Parra Diaz, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor at the San Jose mine. "He wanted the miners to be rescued and I am His instrument."

Such an unsung hero, and so modest with it. I really do hope he gets the reward he deserves for this...

From The US physics professor who was Chairman DSB study on NuclearWinter

Newton: "Fie on you, Hansen, Mann, Jones et al! You are not worthy ofthe name scientists! May the pox consume your shrivelled peterkins!"

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara. Here is his letter of resignation to CurtisG. Callan Jr, Princeton University, President of the American PhysicalSociety.

Anthony Watts describes it thus:

This is an important moment in science history. I would describe it asa letter on the scale of Martin Luther, nailing his 95 theses to theWittenburg church door. It is worthy of repeating this letter inentirety on every blog that discusses science.

It’s so utterly damning that I’m going to run it in full withoutfurther comment. (H/T GWPF, Richard Brearley).

Dear Curt:When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven yearsago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by themoney flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned ahalf-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession wasthen a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World WarII that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove fewphysicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired thefirst APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The ReactorSafety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside therewas no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We weretherefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honestappraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled bythe presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky,Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyondreproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In theend the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, notedthe complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted thatthe report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tributecould there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and themoney flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, thevital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untoldnumbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clearmy former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turnedinto shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you myresignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally)trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so manyscientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is thegreatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in mylong life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that thisis so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, whichlay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’tbelieve that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuffwithout revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition ofthe word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of thischallenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone alongwith it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to afraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the thenPresident immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we gotthe e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encouragediscussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites thatas its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done inthe last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change wasapparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and iscertainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I havelong known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsiderit. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statementwas the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items inphysics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secretcommittee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yetendorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tonewas a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertibleto describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end,the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved afar longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there wereuncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to theoriginal. The original Statement, which still stands as the APSposition, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice toall world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. Itis not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is.This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vastfractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Societyas a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and themachinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. Itwas a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words todescribe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all.This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, afterall, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected thenecessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for aTopical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of thescientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would bebeneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might notethat it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied usthe use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with therequirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detailwhat we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.<

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to acceptour petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list torun a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and theEnvironment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition toform a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition,and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex youwould have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of courseno such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environmentpart, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that youcannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill inwhatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoidyour constitutional responsibility to take our petition to theCouncil.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stackedcommittee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawfulpetition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppressserious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Doyou wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since itis always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming atAPS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it.Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as theyused to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is themoney, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. Thereare indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fameand glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being amember of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you arechairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubbleburst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and theUniversity of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannothave been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As theold saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which waythe wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going toexplore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the lineinto corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releasesmakes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longerrepresents me, but I hope we are still friends.Hal

Sunday, October 10, 2010

What a sour lot we are. Happy to kowtow to every non-white whinger who speaks up.Seriously, diplomatic complaints because some tool has a brain fart on the telly!FFS, Indians should be more concerned with the half a billion people in their own country living in poverty. You know, real poverty. Not the "I have only one flat screen telly and cannot get a new car" poverty that we seem to benchmark against in this land of wimpy white men and their pear shaped women.

I cannot believe the fuss the left and their permanently offended client groups have managed to whip up over Paul Henry.Not much mention of death squads in Kashmir or a complete balls up in Delhi or some Labour member since May turban wearing scumbag who tries to cheat in our local body election. No lets concentrate on a stupid throw away comment made by a white man.

Pathetic.It is okay when Hone sprays, or Clarkula mocks religious groups, or Willy Jackson nuts off.But if you are white and not a lesbian it is not okay?

Personally, I hate everybody.The corrupt Indians, the spitting chinese, the eat the rich lefties, the born to rule tories, the butch dykes, the 30 week a year, 6 hour a day, highest paid in the OECD teachers, the lazy grasping Maori and most of all. The group I despise the most is the scared of their own shadow middle aged white male who has let himself become the fucking blame hound for everything that is wrong with the world.

So where are we now that Paul Henry has fallen victim to the shriekers?Paul Holmes? FFS.

And ask yourself this. Did you wonder who the hell the GG was when the beast announced him?I know I did.

Michael Laws trying to out henry Paul Henry with his deliberately provocative description of the Governor General as a 'fat Indian'. One senses a deliberate attempt to ratchet up his radio ratings with no regard to the consequences of his action.

Totally disliked by his peers in the National Party Research Unit; failed MP for National; failed MP for Winston First; forced to resign after being caught out manufacturing polls; failed husband and now shacked up with a (former) prostitute and pissed off that his hand picked successor failed to win the W(h)anganui Mayoralty.

And those are his good points.

Desperate for a headline and is succeeding for all the wrong reasons.

But have no doubt that Redbaiter (our resident 'Leftie' posing as one of the Good Guys) will spring to his defence.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The UK MOD, Defence News website covers the visit to Afghanistan by Brigadier General Tua'aikaUta'atu, Commander of the Tongan Defence Force including the news that Tonga is to commit 200 troops to join the ISAF force in Central Helman Province. You can read it here

200 troops is a HUGE commitment by Tonga. So too is sending them to Helman Province where the bulk of the fighting is.

The first matter is that of the comments relating to Sheila Dikshit, the Indian Minister.

Humour involving rude sounding surnames has been around forever and a day, and while it elicits a giggle from schoolboys to hear people called “Eric Shin”, most people would roll their eyes.

Paul Henry’s labouring of the Dikshit joke was equally a matter for rolling of eyes for most New Zealanders. A small joke, not a very good one. No real harm done.

India’s angry behaviour in sending diplomatic notes is probably more a convenient response to their own humiliation over the Commonwealth Games village mess, when NZ Chef De Mission Dave Curry described the conditions as filthy to the world.

It's also convenient to make a victim of Dikshit over cheeky comments half a world away, instead of holding her (and her government) over India's lack of preparedness for the Commonwealth Games.

The subsequent international exposure of comments and photos about the disgraceful state of some of the village accommodation will have shamed India, and remember, it did briefly threaten to derail their games. NZers have been the forefront of that criticism.

As it happened, the village was cleaned up, made hospitable, and major nations in the Commonwealth confirmed their participation. A major national PR catastrophe was avoided, but the humiliation of India on the eve of their games could not go unpunished.

Paul Henry’s comments about Minister Dikshit are therefore a convenient opportunity for India to lash back. New Zealand issues a note of apology, India gets to send a message “don’t mess with us”, and Henry is scapegoated for his previous sins and the feeling about the athlete’s village in late September.

The talk about New Zealand losing education business from Indian students is a bit hollow, and I predict that Indian students will continue to come to New Zealand, because they know there is a strong Indian diaspora, they can get a regarded qualification and we are a safe and advanced country which on the whole, has good race relations.

If this was the only scandal involving comments of Paul Henry, I suspect he would still be on air, chastened a little but no harm done to him.

However, the Satyanand comments are a different kettle of fish.

Here, something dark was exposed in Henry’s soul – a comment that showed an almost casual lack of regard towards someone whose qualifications to be Governor-General are almost unimpeachable. The Auckland born highly educated and respected Anand Satyanand was by inference described as not being kiwi enough by someone who subsequently admitted to Gyspy heritage.

What I can’t understand is how someone like Henry, who I don’t believe to be a racist, made such a comment.

I wonder whether it’s possible Henry was egged on to be controversial by someone whispering in that earpiece of his – to see if he could say something shocking to the Prime Minister, who might be caught unguarded and then say something as equally as controversial?

I was furious that a lot of people around the world now think of NZ in terms of infantile, loudmouthed bigotry - but on further reflection, I shouldn't be. He's done us a favour.

People around the world tend to leap to the false conclusion that NZers are great blokes from a wonderful country, rather than people much like themselves from a perfectly ordinary country. They shouldn't do that, because it will only lead to disappointment.

Mr Mehta said widespread publicity of Henry working himself into fits of laughter over the name of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit could deter fee-paying students from coming to New Zealand, which was usually regarded as racially tolerant.

To drum up support for their rally, they set up a Facebook page publicising the event – which has since been bombarded with abusive messages.

"There have been times when me and my colleague have sat down and burst into tears. People have said: `You should just go back to your country, Paul Henry is good'," Ms Chandra said.

"It's just been like `wow, I didn't think this was New Zealanders and this was their view'."

You see? It really is high time people from other ethnic groups realised that the shrieking simian retard they saw pissing himself over a funny foreign name actually is a lot of white New Zealanders and is their view. White New Zealand's pretence that this is actually a friendly, tolerant, welcoming country has been exposed as a pretence, and that can only be a good thing. Now foreigners considering studying here can make a more realistic assessment of what their actual NZ experience would be like.

Friday, October 8, 2010

I have refrained thus far from making any comment on the hype and ballyhoo over Paul Henry's remarks.

However, it is fascinating to see the lengths to which the Left will go, in their attempts to have him sacked. It seems they regard him as a cockroach to be squashed. A right winger nestling in their private little coven of leftist seat warmers at TVNZ. A veritable interloper.

Well, Adolf hopes the shouters actually do persuade TVNZ to fire Henry. I reckon he'll make close to $20 million out of it if Hawkesby's case is any guide.

You see, he'll simply go to the Employment Court and wave his contract in which there will be various clauses which will allow him to say:-

"I was simply complying with my employer's instructions. They required me to be controversial and to go right over the top because they desperately needed an improvement in their ratings."

That's the real reason for TVNZ's foolishly bland initial reaction to the fuss. It was all part of a ratings strategy.

We had been spat at by the likes of Clark and Goff; certain RSA's made it very clear we weren't welcome; you said you had served and the response was 'Baby Killer'.

Some just couldn't handle that and I know of one case where a soldier I was privileged to command went and lived under a bridge just out of Darfield for six months as his way of getting away from it all.

And now 40 years on from the end of that war all kinds of persons come out of the woodwork claiming that they served. A common theme with these 'wannabees' is that their 'service' was with the SAS and all records have been destroyed because of the nature of that service. These clowns steal the honour of those who went and did their duty. Just as sad are those who embellish their genuine service with tales of action seen that put Audie Murphy to shame.

There is a website dedicated to unmasking these make believe ANZACs. If you want a bit of a laugh or cry have a look at some of these clowns.

See here the story of 'Archbishop' Peter McInness; self appointed Primate of a schematic branch of the Anglican Church and make believe Naval Chaplain who conducts weddings of self appointed Admirals complete with 'purchased' knighthoods.

And here for New Zealand Mayoral Candidate in Saturdays election. Six years after his initial exposure here he is again offering himself as Mayor of the Far North District Council.

And real stitch up here 'Sir' Brian Dudley. A genuine Kiwi veteran who gets himself appointed as patron of an ESO (Ex-Serviceman's Organisation) on the basis of a shonky knighthood.

And finally here a 'sailor' who was booted out of the RNZN and who stole the identy of his uncle to wear his and many other medals none of which he was entitled to.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

So there was dear old Phil rocketing into John Key yesterday for not taking a firmer line over the Paul Henry brain explosion. Ok, agreed, JK's response was limited to labelling him a "Shock Jock" but let's say he had gone further and called for PH's head. That would have left TV1 hamstrung as any decent employment lawyer would be able to argue 'abuse of process' and 'undue political pressure'.

But Phil, as a lawyer of very little experience, could hardly be expected to know that ... and pigs fly high.

Contrast this with Phil's deafening silence over the revelation that a Labour Party member(s) standing on the Labour Party ticket in the Auckland Local Body elections is now before the Courts facing multiple charges of electoral fraud.

True leadership would have seen Phil put out a Press Release along these lines ......

"As leader of the Labour Party I am saddened that members of my Party are now facing charges of electoral fraud. I place the highest store on the integrity of the electoral process and any abuse of that will not be tolerated. I am particularly concerned that this action could lead to the results being challenged in the Courts.

I acknowledge that our selection process might be seen as found wanting and I expect the president of the Labour Party will take action to correct this. In the meantime I confirm it is my view that if those persons now before the Courts are found guilty of electoral fraud then they should be expelled from the Labour Party".

No, not Paul Henry - TVNZ's offensive retard market is way too big for them to get rid of him. I'm talking dead in the literal sense, and referring to Geert Wilders. Here's what he's been up to lately:

Dutch Christian Democrats held their noses and committed to a new minority government with the rightwing liberal VVD party, which will depend on the backing of Wilders's 24 seats in the Dutch parliament.

In return for his support, Wilders has gained a binding agreement to ban the burqa, crack down on immigration, and pursue more Eurosceptic policies.

I'd say he's marked for death and the only outstanding issue regarding the timing of it is how good his security guards are.

I've some sympathy for Wilders - Islam is pretty much as he describes it, ie not something we ought to encourage in Western countries, and I can't for the life of me understand why European countries with population densities in the hundreds per sq k would want immigration from anywhere, let alone Muslim countries. The Dutch, with typical Continental respect for freedom of speech, have charged him with hate speech and put him in the dock (same article above) - if convicted, he gets a fat fine or a year in jail. The Muslims of course will have something a little more permanent in mind for him.

Monday, October 4, 2010

My wife pointed out to me a bit in the Sunday paper yesterday about cooking for guests with special dietary requirements, among which was diabetes (I'm a type 1 diabetic, ie the insulin-injections one).

Apparently, if you're cooking for a diabetic, no foods are to be avoided and you should give them plenty of starchy carbohydrates (potatoes, pasta etc) and vegetables. This according to Diabetes UK (article was presumably reprinted from a British paper).

I had hoped that nutritionists would have come to their senses about diabetes in the 10 years since I started ignoring them, but it seems dogma still holds sway. I went and had a look at Diabetes UK and their food recommendations for diabetics are horrifying. Double-checked by having a look a the Diabetes NZ site, and yes it's the same shit: a food pyramid recommending you eat mostly the stuff that will make your diabetes worse, and cut down on the stuff that won't.

Diabetes, whether type 1 or type 2, essentially means the body is no longer able to handle glucose in the blood properly. In type 1 it's because you've stopped producing insulin, and in type 2 it's because you've become insulin-resistant and it takes prodigious amounts of insulin to overcome that resistance. If your blood has high glucose levels over the long term, you can look forward to blindness, impotence, kidney failure, amputated limbs and an early death, so the diabetic's task is to keep those blood glucose levels down as close to normal as possible.

The body gets glucose from food, and some foods are turned into glucose by the digestive system much more rapidly than others. So it seems clear that nutritionists will be a big help to diabetics, because they can tell diabetics which kinds of foods will guickly raise blood glucose and should be avoided, right? Well, you'd think.

You'd think, based on the above, that the diabetic who isn't keen on a future involving blindness, impotence etc would be following a pretty Atkins-y sort of diet. Well, not if that diabetic is listening to professional nutritional advice, which actively warns them off the foods that won't raise blood glucose rapidly and actively encourages them to scoff down the foods that will. It burns me up that these imbeciles are encouraging people to sabotage their chances of surviving diabetes.

Here's the kicker. Why? Why would professional nutritionists instruct diabetics to eat mostly foods that are going to turn them into broken-down pieces of shit? The answer is dogma. Nutritional orthodoxy is that fat is bad and fruit&veg is good. I have in all seriousness been given medical advice that I should eat a high-carb diet that will wreck my blood sugar control because low-carb diets involve lots of fat, and diabetics have an increased risk of heart attack. Why, it could add as much as 5% onto that risk! Uh, right. You know, I don't think a slightly-elevated risk of heart attack is really my biggest health concern for... let's see... oh, yes - the rest of my fucking life.

Stuxnet can potentially control or alter how [an industrial] system operates. A previous historic example includes a reported case of stolen code that impacted a pipeline. Code was secretly “Trojanized’” to function properly and only some time after installation instruct the host system to increase the pipeline’s pressure beyond its capacity. This resulted in a three kiloton explosion, about 1/5 the size of the Hiroshima bomb.

A three kiloton explosion in a pipeline somewhere in the world at some time or other would have rated a mention, even in the Antique Media. Three thousand tonnes of TNT going off in one place is a bit more than a flash bang.

Funny thing is, I can't remember hearing about any such incident. Ever.